February, 2014

Hide Your ‘Last Seen’, Photo and Status: WhatsApp

Whatsapp had become stalking tool for many people. Simply add someones number into your phone contact and get to know their ‘last seen’ date/time, their status update and their profile photo(hmm this one is important!)

WhatsApp for iOS had this option to hide ‘last seen’ date/time, but android version lacked it for some unknown reason.

Privacy On WhatsApp: android
Now WhatsApp users on android can set these privacy settings for ‘Last Seen’, ‘Profile Photo’ and ‘Status’. You can individually set all these to ‘Everyone’, ‘My Contacts’ only and ‘Nobody’ except me!

Download New WhatsApp: Since the latest version of WhatsApp for android isn’t yet available on Google Play Store, you can download it directly from WhatsApp website.
(It’s 13.65 MB in size)

Phone Settings: Go to your android phone’s settings -> Security -> and check ‘Unknown sources’.

Install New WhatsApp: Now click on the downloaded .apk file and install it.

WhatsApp Settings: Go to ‘settings’ -> Account -> Privacy -> Who can see my personal info

Do not forget to set back your security option on your phone after installing new WhatsApp apk file. Go to your phone settings -> Security -> and UNCHECK ‘Unknown sources’.

Looks like a good move as soon as Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 Billion.

Facebook Acquires WhatsApp for $19 Billion: Facts

$19 Billion for a messaging service? That’s lot expensive, isn’t it? Lets look what Facebook got out of the deal.

WhatsApp Facts
Jan Koum and Brian Acton are the co-founders of the company.
Jan and Brian were previously working at Yahoo.
Brian was Jan’s mentor at Yahoo.
Jan Koum, CEO of Whatsapp is now one of Facebook’s board member and partner with Mark to shape Facebook’s future as well as WhatsApp’s.
Whatsapp has 450 million active users. At least a million install and join Whatsapp each day.
Whatsapp has at least 72% of daily active users – which is a lot when compared to industry standards, which is 10% to 20%.
Whatsapp has only 32 engineers.
Whatsapp was free to download, install and use for 1 year. After that you had to pay $1 for a year.

$19 = $4 + $12 + $3
Whatsapp was acquired for $19 Billion – $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. And additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.

Do you think $19 Billion is Justifiable ?
I don’t think Whatsapp can be evaluated to $19 Billion in any ways. But Whatsapp sure helps in Facebook’s mission to make the web open and to connect as many people as possible. Whatsapp has the potential to connect Billions of people. In few years whatsapp can have 3 to 4 Billion active users – according to it’s growth rate. Throwing ads on 3 – 4 Billion people would be foolish, so they might come up with some innovative monetization strategies too. I only wish they don’t sell user data 😛 – Till now Whatsapp had no idea about users age, gender etc, except the mobile number. But now if you use same mobile number even on Facebook, imagine what all they can know about you 😉 I wish whatsapp, Facebook and all their users(including me) all the best for the future!

Facebook has said to continue to maintain Whatsapps principles: No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!

Funny thing is, Brian was looking for a job 4 years back:

Recruiters

networking with recruiters, venture capitalists, playing ultimate frisbee

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 20, 2009

Twitter

Got denied by Twitter HQ. That's ok. Would have been a long commute.

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 23, 2009

Facebook!

Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure.

— Brian Acton (@brianacton) August 3, 2009

Now he must be thanking all the people who said NO to him. Without them, this glorious day might not have come 😛

“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the BEST, you very often get it.” – William Somerset Maugham

Best Budget Phone: Moto G

I was impressed with Moto X from Motorola, but went with Nexus 5 as I want to have pure android experience, as a developer. But I still loved Moto X for it’s camera/picture clarity.

Moto G on FlipKart

Motorola has now released Moto G, and it created a lot of buzz. I din’t want to be involved in creating the hype, but once I had the device and tested it, I was convinced that this is ‘the best’ midrange android phone we could get. Look at the specs:

KEY FEATURES OF MOTO G
5 MP Primary Camera and 1.3 MP Secondary Camera – with LED flash, HDR(auto), Slow motion video recording.
Digital Zoom – 4x
Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Android v4.3 (Jelly Bean) OS – Moto G can be updated to android KitKat
1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Quad Core Processor and 1 GB RAM
Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
HD Recording
4.5-inch HD Display: 720p HD resolution and 329 ppi – every pixel is sharp, vivid and crystal clear.
Wi-Fi Enabled
Quad Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 Processor is clocked at 1.2 GHz.
1 GB RAM to support multitasking and the Adreno Graphics 305 to let you play graphic-heavy games.
16 GB and 8 GB Internal Memory devices available.
2070 mAh Li-Ion battery – Up to 24 hours backup

It’s an awesome phone. If you were still thinking and waiting till your friend or coworker takes it, you need not wait – it’s good device for the price. You can go ahead and buy it.

For 8 GB Moto G it costs : Rs. 12,499/-
For 16 GB Moto G it costs: Rs. 13,999/-

I would recommend to go with 16 GB device, as it has a small difference of cost compared to 8 GB device, but comes with double the storage space. So go for 16 GB Moto G. You can also get original Cover / Case for your Moto G as an introductory offer on online sites like FlipKart, for a small extra cost.

Check out:
Moto G on FlipKart
Moto G on Amazon
Moto G on Amazon India